"A Founding Fathers' Independence Day Celebration"

Looking for some engaging guests for your 4th of July celebration? Imagine a few of our Founding Fathers dropping by!

Host: “What a surprise and an honor to have you visit. Our economy is struggling, people can’t find jobs, and people are losing their homes. Some citizens are wondering if the American Dream is still alive. Do you have any thoughts for us in these tough times?”

Benjamin Franklin: “Always liberty. In pursuit of liberty we pledged to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. Liberty was more important to us than material prosperity. Prosperity is a fruit of freedom, not its root.”

Thomas Jefferson: “So true. A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”

Host: “I hate to tell you folks, but the country you created is facing a huge debt. The Federal Reserve Bank has been printing money to stimulate the economy, and it’s not working. They’re considering raising the debt ceiling to 16 trillion dollars.”

Jefferson: “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless.”

Host: Did you see this coming?

Jefferson: “This is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of society is reduced to mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering… And the driving force is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its wake wretchedness and oppression.”

Franklin: “Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.”

Host: “They say that they can’t cut entitlement programs—the programs designed to take care of our poor citizens. They point to the ‘general welfare’ clause in the Constitution. Is that what you meant?”

Jefferson: “Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.”

Terry Paulson, PhD is a psychologist, award-winning professional speaker, author of The Optimism Advantage: 50 Simple Truths to Transform Your Attitudes and Actions into Results, and long-time columnist for the Ventura County Star.

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